


Attempts to Fly

by shores (underscore_guayaba)



Category: In Other Lands - Sarah Rees Brennan, The Turn of the Story - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Idk enjoy, M/M, Yes there's sex, post-cannon but tbh unimportant, references to in other lands but might be possible to read w just the turn of the story knowledge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 10:02:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12010419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underscore_guayaba/pseuds/shores
Summary: Elliot just wants to bring technology to the magic land, even if it won't cooperate. He figures it's high time for air travel. And yes, he might get a bit too invested in his projects, but Luke is there and supports him, even when he doesn't even understand what is going on.





	Attempts to Fly

"I would really appreciate if you stopped saying hopefully."

"Oh, it's going to work. Hopefully."

Luke made a small frustrated noise.

Elliot pushed that ridiculous hair of his off his forehead and smirked at him. Then he took a deep breath and jumped off the side of the cliff. The weird thing he had strapped to his back flapped once, twice, made a horrible ripping noise, and then Elliot was falling, and screaming his head off.

Luke gave a tiny sigh and dove for him. He caught him in a tangle of wings and wood and canvas, and Elliot clung to his neck like he always did when flying. So Luke too tightened his grip on Elliot's waist, and stretched his wings far behind him, managing after a few seconds to adjust to the extra weight. Except every time he had veered Elliot had screeched and hung on tighter, so Luke did it a couple more times than was necessary, just for fun.

 

Once they were back on the ground Elliot collapsed on top of what he called a “hopefully functioningnineteen-century-esque plane”, and clearly was not, at least the part of the sentence that Luke could even begin to understand. Regardless, he prided himself in more or less getting the general idea. Which Elliot was currently squashing.

"You're going to ruin your contraception," Luke told him.

"What?! Oh, you mean contraption." Luke mentally repeated that in his head. "It's okay,” continued Elliot, "it doesn't work anyway. Which is fine, because I have just decided I hate heights and am never going to try to defy human's rightful place as land creatures ever again. Not for you, light of my life, or for becoming the magical land equivalent of the Wright Brothers, or, you know, a hotter Sir George Cayley.”

Luke wanted to ask, who?, but the pet name erased everything in his mind for a second so instead he sat down next to Elliot and patted his orange curls a couple of times, until he opened his eyes to see Luke’s teasing grin.

"Are you sure you're completely human?" Luke asked, "That screeching sounded awfully harpy to me."

"Oh, shut up, loser. It must be rubbing off."

Luke laughed and helped Elliot remove all the straps and odd bits he had attached to his body somehow, until finally he was free. Elliot smiled and kissed him.

"Thanks for saving me," he murmured against Luke's mouth.

"Anytime," Luke answered, and deepened the kiss.

 

*******

 

Upon arriving at the small cabin they were having an after-school vacation in, because, in Elliot’s words, “we deserve it”, Elliot dumped what was left of his plane thing in the lean-to he had used as a studio all summer, and rubbed his eyes. In the kitchen he slammed shut all his reference books with pretty diagrams and shoved them aside. At that point Luke gently steered him away, because it might have been Elliot’s turn to cook, but he was bad enough at it already without being in one of his moods.

 

Later Luke sat next to Eliot, who was still sulking, and covered him with his wing, which he knew Elliot appreciated by the way he burrowed into it.

“You said it was very likely it was not going to work,” Luke said. Elliot wrinkled his nose a little, which meant incoming sassy retort, but Luke kept talking. “Besides, you’re terrified of heights.”

“Untrue.”

“Very true.”

Elliot sighed. “Yeah, okay. Just don’t tell anyone, loser.”

Luke snorted. “Remember the time I picked you up before that battle with the trolls and you screamed like an elven gentleman in despair?”

“You just surprised me. I was surprised. And it was a _manly yell of terror_.”

Then they both fell silent because first, this was an obvious lie, and second, they were too busy remembering that that had also been the first time they had kissed.

Elliot bit his lip. Twilight painted his skin into pearly white, his freckles bold like stars. Luke ran his thumb over them before cupping Elliot’s jaw and kissing him. Elliot parted his lips and kissed him back, gently, until suddenly he rose up from his chair and landed back down, this time straddling Luke’s lap. This lasted for about three (glorious) seconds before Luke mumbled an “okay, enough”, picked Elliot up and almost threw him onto the bed. Elliot took his shirt off, probably to distract Luke from the undignified squawking noise he had just made, and Luke had to concede it worked perfectly well because as always thought seemed to flee from his head like a badly behaved canary escaping his cage. Elliot laughed and laid back on the pillows, and Luke mentally congratulated himself -and Serene, although he generally tried to avoid thinking about her in moments like these- in yeah, okay, bullying Elliot into exercising because it was so worth all the years of suffering and complaining and even the increased sexual frustration in Luke's part.

He kissed a path down Elliot's ribs and he moaned, tugging at Luke's wings.

"Okay, okay, enough of that," he said, because neither of them had any patience or self control, ”take off your pants."

Luke gave a tiny laugh and took Elliot's pants off instead, who rather than complaining started making those small breathy noises of his, and then began sucking at Luke's neck. At that point Luke of course undressed at record speed and laid back down over Elliot, whose fingers went back immediately to the soft skin where Luke’s wings met his back. Elliot started pulling on his feathers, so Luke started pulling on Elliot’s hair, and Elliot swore softly and slid a hand down their bodies, before wrapping it around both their dicks. Luke felt the magic Elliot talked on about envelop them and burrow underneath his skin, crawling along his spine, white-hot at the points where Elliot’s nails were digging into his back. Elliot too looked otherworldly, and he was, he reminded himself, somehow from a land of singing boxes and flying machines, and yet here, writhing underneath him as Luke too closed a hand around Elliot’s, and moved them faster as Elliot started talking again, quiet nonsense, words Luke couldn’t even really process, until he realized Elliot had stopped calling him a loser, and was instead moaning Luke’s name like a chant. He pressed down, and Elliot rose up, fingers slick around both their dicks and body unraveling, his eyes pressed shut and mouth pink and half open…

Luke felt as if suddenly hit by lighting, or as if his veins had been set ablaze. He bowed his head down and bit on Elliot’s shoulder, trying to keep himself grounded, except abruptly everything went white, and Elliot hissed beneath him and joined him, arching his back, shaking until slumping down.

His eyes always looked a little lost after coming, so Luke kissed his jaw, gently.

And then Elliot, still staring at the ceiling, and like he had suddenly reached an epiphany he couldn’t completely comprehend, murmured: “I love you.”

Luke could not figure out who looked more surprised in that moment. But then after a few seconds he felt a grin split his face and leaned back down to kiss Elliot, fervently, and Elliot smiled back into the kiss.

“I love you too, so very much,” Luke answered him, in between pressing his lips to any part of Elliot’s face that he could reach, until Elliot started laughing.

“Get off, you’re crushing me,” he complained, pushing gently against Luke’s chest, and Luke rolled off him and onto his back, feeling golden until gradually it sunk into him that he was actually sticky and cold, and crushing his wings.

Elliot sighed and took his hand, raising it once to his lips before standing up and cleaning himself with a damp towel. Luke unashamedly stared at his ass, until the towel landed on his face.

 

Eventually Elliot came back to bed, and pulled the covers around them both, their legs tangling together, Elliot’s arm around Luke’s waist. Luke was a certified sleeping-on-his-stomach kind of guy, and so he had to raise his head lightly to look into Elliot’s eyes. They looked shinier than usual, something that Luke courteously did not point out, and instead smiled gently.

“I really did mean it,” Elliot whispered. “It was not a passion-induced proclamation, or—“

“Elliot,” Luke interrupted, because really, “I know. I meant it as well, with all my heart. I love you.”

Elliot smiled wider, no hint of worry left, and then closed his eyes, lashes fanning against his cheeks. Luke kissed gently the tip of his nose and settled down as well.

And that night, in their dreams, they might had both been flying.

**Author's Note:**

> hi, so this is my first-ish fic which i honestly never planned on writing and yet here we are. any corrections on spelling etc (or suggestions) are welcome (trust me, i know about the commas, let me live,,,,)  
> anyways thanks for reading and enjoy your day bye


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